Sunday, December 27, 2015

Had a fantastic Christmas.
Christmas Eve we spent @ home doing last minute things for The Day
Skyped with some pretty excited kiddos in Alberta
Watched The Bishop's Wife and ate our traditional Christmas Eve pizza
Then off to bed with "visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads"

Once we were up we did our stocking opening, had croissants, clementines, chocolate, and coffees
Opened our gifts --- I got a nifty racing red hand mixer and lovely artisan earrings
Then got ourselves dodid up.
Packed .. and I mean packed ... up the Civic and off to Arnprior

What fun!!! Even tho Miss D really had no idea what was happening she totally enjoyed the attention and well the STUFF.
We skyped again with our Alberta contingent who were still pretty stoked.
They were so excited to see Miss D open the gifts from them

D loves Nona's bangles so Santa brought her some of her own.
It's still fun playing with Nona's tho ...

Later in the afternoon Miss D's other G parents arrived --
Mimi and Opa
More attention and more stuff
It was so much fun

They brought her an awesome rocker chair.

she LOVES it!

Then time to get that Christmas dinner on the table
Everyone contributed which was great
I did the turkey and gravy and a sausage dressing. And brought a bunch of baking.
Sio did Potatoes and sweet potatoes
Mimi brought Brussel sprouts with bacon and a very yummy raspberry white chocolate mousse cake
HB did his traditional Challah
We all did a bang up job and everything was (as my grand son Miles likes to say) deeeee licious
I made everyone a sugar cookie mitten place card.

After dinner we played with Miss D, had a few drinks, and just enjoyed the evening.

HB and I spent the night.
In the morning there was putting together a couple of Miss D toys, colouring, digging play doh out of floors, giving her new fav toy Violet (from Aunt Holly) a ride in her new Mega Blocks wagon

Spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at home, watching a bit of TV, and looking forward to our awesome hot turkey sandwiches

So here it is Sunday morning
Freezing rain everywhere.

HB is doing the Carleton Place Christmas Bird Count ... he has coordinated this thing for the last ten years
I have the feeders all topped and fresh new suet in all the suet containers.
See the side bar for my suet recipe.
It was very crunchy out there.
Walk like a penguin weather --- remember those commercials? LOL
I used to go out in the field but I prefer to have a relaxing day and just watch my feathered friends from the comfort of my family room
So far lots of activity -- chick a dees, white breasted nuthatches, downy woodpecker.
I have my camera set up in the window to catch a few shots.

Our tortiere is made up and ready for the oven
I am hoping I can look past the dusty furniture and odds and ends that need to be put away and the laundry I know has to be done
And get caught up on some of the knitting projects that I just did not get finished

Sunday, December 20, 2015

I love the idea of the this crazy Elf on a Shelf
BUT
I am not one to get caught up on the trendy stuff
And to be honest I find this Elf ... well... a wee bit creepyAnyway ......
last week we had lunch in Manotick with a fabulous afternoon with Deb and her retired guy
After a lovely little lunch at The Miller's Oven ...
a quaint tea room run by volunteers who LOVE to chat with you.
We took a walking tour of downtown Manotick
I found this lil fella at the Miller's Florist

"Gotta have him" I said to HB
and here he is

Now he just needs a name .... I have a few running around my head ---- Norman and Stewart leading the way
Or maybe Angus EH DEB ??
If you ever do get to eastern Ontario and find your way to Manotick . You have to check out "The Gingerbread Man" . It is nothing but gingerbread and the shop smells absolutely enchanting. They make awesome butter tarts too

Thursday, December 17, 2015

MMMMMMM
My house smells like chocolate and cinnamon and peppermint
AND
There is Christmas music blaring or is that me squeaking out a Christmas tune

I must be baking

Yup that's what I am doing.

Over the years my baking has been reduced considerably and our family tastes have become -- should I say it -- more adult
Not so many ooey gooeys and cutout decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies
More biscottis and shortbread

﻿

I still make marshmallows and sponge toffee

And Christmas would not be Christmas @ 44 without Peppermint Squares

Hey maybe our tastes haven't been that adulted up

I found Christmas Peeps at of all places The Dollar Tree.
So I have made up a lot of little S'more bags for a few lil ones in my life

I have the forms for the gingerbread all baked and ready for construction
Miss D may be a wee bit too young to know what it is all about
but that won't stop herMomma or me
After all it is all for the Kiddys right??
I only wish my other G Kidds Miles and Riley could help us out
BUT
Of course being 2000 miles away makes it a we bit of a problem

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

After talking to my friend Joyce the other night I may try sock knitting again.
She loves knitting socks and always has one on a needle.We went to Costa Rica a few years
ago and I remember her sitting on our patio
sipping Guaro Sours and knitting her socks.

She is very encouraging....
She has also volunteered to take my socks and knit the offensive heel for me ..... I LOVE YOU Joyce !!

I love the sock yarns especially the self striping and patterned
ones.

You can see my knitting buddy Lucky in the reflection of my computer screen in the pic above.

It is that da** heel turning that gets me
I think I may just need to close myself in a room with absolutely
no distraction when that part comes up.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Here I sit basking in the soft glow of our Christmas tree.
Too early to be up --- I was told by the lump that lay beside me in bed.
Sipping a cup Chai --- listening to my puddy tats plaintively meowing at the basement door.
" Pleeeaaase let us up we are staaaaarving"
Well it is the season of too many ideas swirling in my head and last minute (at least for me ) things to put on THE list

Here are some shots of our lil town's Santa parade.

Of course first we had to get ready to go
We were lucky this year that it was a very mild night.
No freezing toes

and since it was the Santa parade only red mitts would do..

D was a little confused at the start but once she was handed her third candy cane
she was all into it

Our volunteer fire men were there.

So the question being --- if there is a fire who is going to show up?

Hahahah ---- small town humour at its best.

Gotta have a pipe band or two﻿

and of course small town politicians ARE politicians. Merry Christmas Mayor!!

Now how did another shot of Daphne get in there??

The theme was a Whoville Christmas

And here is with of course the Mrs.

In the past our town has won a couple of awards for the best small town ( under 10,000)

zAzA in a Nutshell

I am a very lucky lady who has been sharing a life with my HB for almost 40 years. My family is the very most important thing in that life. Holly is our oldest daughter who lives in Strathmore Alberta with twins Miles and Riley our first G Kiddos. I cannot lie and say I do not wish they were here (west of Ottawa Canada) but for now we have to be happy with a weekly Skype and occasional visit. Siobhan is married to Will. We get to spend lots of time with them --- golfing and Scrabbling. And grand daughter Daphne whom we spend lots of time with and get to have a sleepover once a week or so.
I spend lots of time -- knitting, crocheting, baking, cooking, reading, a huge Ottawa Senators fan, watching old movies (especially westerns),gardening, being a friend.
I am an extremely proud wife, mom, Nona, and mom in law.
And last but not least are my darling fur babies. A couple of wee ferals that have made themselves quite at home here at 44 for the past 15 years.